Mozambique

The coast of Mozambique was long a link in the Indian Ocean trade network, where Swahili and Arab merchants exchanged gold and ivory from the African interior for goods from across the seas. The Portuguese arrived around 1500 and gradually built a colony that they held for nearly five centuries, one of the longest colonial relationships in Africa. After an armed liberation struggle, Mozambique won independence in 1975 under the FRELIMO movement, but was soon engulfed in a destructive civil war that lasted until 1992.

Mozambique stretches along the Indian Ocean for some 2,500 kilometres, giving it one of the longest coastlines in Africa, fringed with beaches, coral reefs, and islands. Inland, low coastal plains rise to plateaus and highlands toward the western borders. The great Zambezi River crosses the country on its way to the sea. This warm, watered landscape is vulnerable to cyclones sweeping in from the Indian Ocean and to periodic flooding of its rivers.

The flag of Mozambique is one of the most distinctive in the world, the only national flag to feature a modern rifle. It has green, black, and yellow horizontal bands separated by white stripes, with a red triangle at the hoist bearing a star, a book, a hoe, and a crossed automatic rifle. These represent education, agriculture, and defence, while the colours stand for the land, the African continent, mineral wealth, and the struggle for independence.

Mozambique is religiously diverse. Christianity, brought by the Portuguese, is the largest faith, divided among Catholics and various Protestant churches, while Islam is strongly established along the northern coast, a legacy of the centuries of Indian Ocean and Swahili trade. Traditional African beliefs remain widespread, often practised alongside the world religions. This blend of faiths reflects the country's position at a meeting point of African, Arab, and European worlds.

Mozambican cuisine is among the most distinctive in Africa, shaped by the meeting of African ingredients with Portuguese, Arab, and Indian influences along the spice routes. It is famous for its bold use of chili in the fiery peri-peri sauce, served most memorably with grilled prawns and chicken. Cassava and maize porridges are staples, matapa is a beloved dish of cassava leaves cooked with peanuts and coconut, and the long coast provides an abundance of fresh seafood.

Agriculture is the livelihood of most Mozambicans, the great majority of it small-scale and for subsistence. Cassava and maize are the main food crops, while cashew nuts, of which the country was once a leading producer, along with sugar, cotton, and tea, are grown for export. Prawns and other seafood from the rich coastal waters are an important export too. Recurring cyclones and floods, however, regularly threaten harvests and rural livelihoods.

The Swahili trading era and five centuries of Portuguese rule shaped Mozambique's history. Independence in 1975 was quickly followed by a brutal civil war between the governing FRELIMO and the RENAMO movement, a conflict fuelled in part by regional rivalries, which devastated the country before peace came in 1992. In recent years the discovery of vast offshore natural gas reserves has raised hopes of prosperity, even as an insurgency has troubled the far north.

Mozambique has a population of around 33 million people, made up of many Bantu ethnic groups speaking a range of languages, with Portuguese serving as the official and unifying tongue. The population is young, fast-growing, and largely rural, concentrated in the fertile north and along the coast. The capital and largest city is Maputo, in the far south. Despite its natural wealth, the country remains among the poorer in the world, working to rebuild after decades of conflict.